One of the most important features of the latest Egyptian cinema season, has perhaps been the strong return of filmmakers to the musical films.
Six films for renowned singers were screened last years simultaneously, Rihlet Hobb (Love Journey) starring singer Mohammed Fuad; Ashab Walla Business (Friends or Business) starring Mustafa Amar; Sukoot Hansawwar (Quiet, We Will Shoot) starring Tunisian singer Latifa; Muwaten, Mukhber Wa Harami (Citizen, Detective and Thief) starring pop singer Shaaban Abdul Rahim; Allabbis (Elegant) starring Medhat Saleh and Gala Gala starring Fares.
The reason behind this trend, according to the daily al Ahram, is that the Egyptian cinema has not produced this quantity of such films, which were on the brink of disappearance since the seventies.
The musical film has occupied a prominent space in the Egyptian cinema as the first musical film in this industry was screened one month after the first narrative film in 1932. The film was entitled Onshudat al Fuad (Heart Anthem) starring the Syrian actress Naderah and directed by Mario Fulbi. Then the smash hit al Wardah al Baidaa (White Rose) by the late renowned Egyptian musician Mohammed Abdel Wahab followed to consolidate the musical films and prompt the late prominent singer Um Kulthoum to turn to the cinema. Prominent singers including Laila Murad, Farid al Atrash, Mohammed Fawzi, Abdul Halim Hafez, Shadia, Sabah and others followed the footsteps of Umm Kulthoum. The first poll conducted about the best films in the history of the Egyptian cinema industry showed 10 musical films.
But this type of film slipped after the success it had achieved to be resurrected again because the Egyptian and Arab viewer likes to see singers in the movies. During the period of recession which the musical film witnessed, stars including Ahmed Zaki, Mahmoud Abdul Aziz and others sang in order to meet the fans’ needs.
Despite the emergence of fairly large number of singers since mid eighties and whose cassettes were said to have been sold in millions, these singers distanced themselves from the cinema and focused on musical videos as a quicker means for fame and circulation. Strangely, these singers resorted to the film directors to shoot their videos and became aware later on that song cassettes were suitable only for TV and fade away quickly.
The big and unanticipated success, which the film Ismaeliyyah Rayeh Gayy (Ismaeliyyah, Coming and Going) has achieved, was enough reason to make these singers become aware of the importance of the cinema. They began penetrating the cinema and so the musical films came back to the movies. But they faced the problem that their films were based on the musical video method, which searches, for themes and topics from old films to adapt them to make new ones. So the renaissance came turbulent, unstable and unpredictable. Also these movies faced the problem of falling short of musical films with the consumption perspective controlling their production and sales -- Albawaba.com
